Frequently Asked Questions

The My Year Without Clothes Shopping program is delivered completely online – all you need is a computer and access to a printer, and you can participate in the program. The program offers immediate joining – as soon as you register, pay and sign-up, your program will start within hours.

There are 12 themes in the program – one for each month.

The program provides you with weekly high quality in-depth tutorials delivered via email and access to our members only area on the website.

This is how the tutorials work. Every week, you’ll receive a Lesson delivered fresh into your inbox. Your Lesson is full of tips and techniques, inspiration and ideas, strategies and secrets, focused on the theme for that Month. You’ll be directed, in the Lesson, to the Members Only area to download that week’s Resource. The Resource is jam-packed with illustrations, examples and activities to keep it practical; the Resource is also where you’ll find real traction in the program.

This online program is unique – you’ll receive support and inspiration from a wide range of experts in their field, from all over the world.

What you get out of the 12 month program depends on how you approach it. The program is designed for you to interact with it – not just scan the material. Any form of improvement in your relationship to shopping, yourself, your wardrobe and your wallet will ultimately come down to you. What I can do, and have done with the program’s design and flow, is to give you the tools to motivate yourself.

The program is organized into 12 themes – one for each month. You can read about each of the themes here. We also have more detail about the program here.

What makes this program unique is how the content has been organized and pulled together. It is a program, not just a one-off download. You’ll find the material very accessible, because its delivered in manageable pieces every week throughout the year.

We’ve organized the material to make it oh so easy for you to access and take action on.

In addition to that, consider that you’ll be getting access to the most amazing faculty, each experts in their own field. Their material has been specifically organized around the Year Without Clothes Shopping theme, in an easy-to-access format. You won’t find this collection of experts in one place anywhere else.

We’ve done the hard work for you with this program’s design. We’ve compiled relevant, rich and rewarding material in a weekly tutorial format. Whether you want to radically cut down on your over-spending, or take the full challenge of a year without clothes shopping – let’s do this together!

As soon as you’ve paid and confirmed your details, your Year Without Clothes Shopping challenge will start immediately – your Orientation email will arrive in your inbox within a few hours of you signing up.  Make sure you’re ready to start when you sign up!

There is no perfect time to start your year without clothes shopping program.  Sometimes trying to find the ‘perfect’ time is just another way of procrastinating. There will likely never be a perfect time to start the challenge — so choose a date that makes sense for you, commit to that and just start.

Here’s a suggestion for you when thinking about when to start your own Year: One of our recent members started her Year on her birthday. She gave this program to herself as a birthday gift. She did this because she had previously started a “Do It Yourself” challenge of a year without clothes shopping on January 1, and had failed by the time Valentines Day rolled around mid February.

Rather than continue to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result (the definition of insanity), she did three things differently. These things changed everything for her:

1. She picked a date that was personally meaningful to her to start such an important challenge: her birthday.
2. She joined this program which gave her the structure, motivation, content and support she needed – knowing she would not be able to do this on her own (she’d tried that before, and it hadn’t worked).
3. And finally, she reframed this challenge as a gift to herself – an investment in her mental, physical, financial and emotional health.

She is now a very proud alumni of My Year Without Clothes Shopping and reports feeling free and alive in a way she hasn’t experienced in years!

This is an excellent question, because the program will take some time each week. Change is a process, not an event, and you’ll need to dedicate some time each week to interact with the material and do the activities.

Some of our members spend over an hour each week on the material (the Weekly Lesson and Resource). Others spend about an hour, sometimes a little less.

The material you’ll be receiving each week is relevant, engaging and thorough – and you’ll want to be reading it all and doing the exercises. So, yes, there is time involved each week for you to get any value out of this program. Any quality program requires that you spend time engaging with the material and making it your own.

Think of how much time you’re spending shopping now – either physically in the stores, or online, and include window shopping and just looking/surfing. Tote it up to get a rough estimate of how much of your time you’re putting into shopping pursuits, on a weekly basis, now.

Research suggests that the “average” shopper spends a couple of hours each week shopping in the mall or online – buying or ‘just looking’. So it’s not much of a stretch to imagine that the “average” shopaholic or overspender is spending much more time than that a week in shopping pursuits.

One way of looking at the time you’ll want to invest in this program is: use the time that you previously spent in shopping pursuits to read the Weekly Lessons and do the activities/exercises in the Weekly Resources. You’ll likely have time to spare! (and like our current members, you’ll also feel much, much better about yourself).

Every person’s savings is going to be different. Here’s a rough guideline on how to work out what you’re likely to save. Add up what you are spending per week or month on clothes, shoes, accessories, handbags and all other adornments of the body (include fabric, beads, etc). Multiply that by 52 (or 12 if you did a monthly guestimate) and you’ll have the ballpark number of what you’re likely to save during the year by doing this program.

It could be hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars. It may be that what you are spending in a week will more than cover the cost of tuition.

But that’s just the beginning of what you’ll save. The other part of the equation is what you’ll save after the program is finished. Because you’ll know the building blocks to creating a truly working wardrobe … because you will have explored your relationship to money … because you will understand the emotional and psychological drivers of your shopping … because you’ll know the true options you have in shopping consciously … because you’ll be able to organise your wardrobe so you can truly shop your wardrobe …because you will have developed a healthier relationship to shopping, in your own terms …. because you’ll know all these things and much, much more – your investment in this program will pay dividends long after the last lesson is delivered to your inbox.

This program provides you with material — tools, illustrations and resources — that you can use over and over again, long past the last day of your challenge.

This program is also an investment. An investment in you, your wardrobe, your finances, your emotional and psychological health. We give you so much in this program to set you up to succeed. The tuition cost is an incredibly small outlay in comparison to what you’ll receive in return.

We hear from women who want to do the program but aren’t sure their computer skills are adequate to do an online course. The answer is: there are no special computer skills required to be able to do this program.

If you can get online to visit this website and navigate around the pages here (which I’m guessing you can, if you are reading these words right now), and if you can do email — then you have all the computer skills you need to do this program.

The programs on this site are listed in USD, and the reason for that is that much of the readership of this site is outside of Australia, and many of the purchases of the programs are made outside Australia, too.  Constant overspending and its concomitant issues such as emotional fatigue and a sense of futility and chaos, is a global issue, sadly; the good news is that this site is reaching a global audience, which is wonderful.

Because of our global readership and the fact that USD is the standard international currency for selling goods on the internet and is also the default currency for PayPal, our programs are in USD.

We hear this a lot. Women who are intrigued by and attracted to what the program offers, but something is holding them back. And that thing is usually fear. There are two things to consider here:

1. Deliberate program design. The program is deliberately designed to be an enriching and engaging experience. Every week you’ll receive a lesson fresh into your inbox, full of inspiration and ideas on that month’s theme – click here to learn more about how the program is put together. There is a resource for each weekly lesson to get you taking action at your own pace. We’ve done all the hard work in setting up the program so it’s easy for you to access the weekly material.

The program is designed by me and there is a phenomenal faculty who have contributed to much of the program. The program is chockablock full of interesting and enlightening ideas and practical suggestions, arranged in 12 key themes.

Most women who join our program have been working on their shopping habits for years, sometimes decades. These kinds of entrenched habits won’t disappear overnight, or with a single downloadable info product. Real change is a process – not an event.

This program is a year in length for a very deliberate reason, and that is it can take that long to get some real traction in changing your relationship to yourself, your shopping, your wallet and your wardrobe. Anything less than a year may just be scratching the surface.

If you are looking for real change, and not just a band-aid solution, you need to dedicate yourself to a process of change. And that’s what we offer with this program’s deliberate design.

2. Join with a friend. Consider doing the challenge with a friend or family member. Enrol your friends, your sister, your sister-in-law, your mother, your neighbour, your workout buddies, your classmates, your book club!

You’ll receive a lot of support via the program itself (in the weekly two-part tutorial and in the protected Members Only area where the weekly bulletin boards are accessed). You’ll multiply that if you do the program with someone else – you can share the journey together!

We understand that women join the program for many and varied reasons. Some join because they want to maximise their current wardrobes – they know they have some good pieces but they’re not sure how to make the most of them. They know this program will walk them through the building blocks to creating a wonderful working wardrobe.

Others join because they want to radically cut down on their shopping, a problem they may have been dealing with for years, decades sometimes. They know this program explores the emotional and psychological reasons that we shop, and gently but firmly takes them through an understanding of how money fits into the picture.

And some join because the spirit and the specific parameters of the challenge are what they want – they want to have a year without clothes shopping. They know this program covers the jigsaw puzzle of over-shopping like no other program in the world, delivered by the most phenomenal faculty you can imagine assembled.

You’ll join for your own reasons. We know that. We’re cool with that.

We’re equally up front that this program is designed around the concept of a year without clothes shopping. That said, the spirit of the challenge can be upheld even if the specific rules aren’t always strictly applied for all members.

We don’t call you up to the front of the class at any time and ask you to report in. The program is based on the premise that you’re self-motivated and committed to a year without clothes shopping – however you apply that to your specific circumstances.

Our suggestion – during and post- challenge — is “borrow rather than buy, swap rather than shop”. So during the year, we also suggest clothes swaps and borrowing from friends and family as another way to add necessary items to your wardrobe during the year without buying new.

It’s a myth that all women love shopping and all women love clothes. I’ve learned that a good proportion of women don’t like shopping or clothes. This program may still be good fit for you.

If you do not know the building blocks to creating a working wardrobe (such as if you don’t know what styles and colours suit you… what fabrics wear well on your shape… what ‘gaps’ you have in your wardrobe… how to maximise what you already have by mixing and matching well… how to organise what you have so it supports and inspires your clothing choices every day)…. in short – if you don’t have a wardrobe that works harder than you do … or if you’d like to understand your relationship to money and your spending habits better…. this program will have a lot in it for you.

A lot of women are overwhelmed by the choices they are faced with in clothing and department stores. They’re confused about what will suit them, afraid of wasting money, and have no time for squandering in shops. They don’t know how to set their closets up so they feel like they can ‘shop’ in them. All those things (and so much more) are addressed in this online program.

Shopping can be an enjoyable pastime, and it can fulfil many needs from the social to the practical and the emotional. If you’re not sure what the definition of a shopaholic is and whether that term applies to you, sign up for our Free Report (12 Keys to Conscious Clothes Shopping) and our Free Assessment (Are You a Shopaholic?) to learn more. Or just go straight to our Mini Course – it’s only 6 weeks and will introduce you to the key concepts of conscious shopping.

Here’s another suggestion if you’re not sure you overshop: buy a small notebook that you can carry in your bag. Over the next week, or next few weeks, write down everything you spend. Every. Single. Item. At the end of the week, or few weeks if you’ve tracked your shopping for longer, have a look at what you’ve spent, and on what.

There is nothing like hard data to provide a clear view of what you are actually spending your money on.

We often hold a distorted view of what we spend – we think it’s less than what it is. Our wallet is lighter, our credit card statement seems longer… but we’re not quite courageous enough to look closely to see what’s really going on. Tracking every dollar that leaves your wallet, whether it’s in cash or on plastic, is a great way to get an accurate picture of what you’re spending. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to know if your spending is healthy. Or not.

If you have forgotten your password, click on the “Lost your password” link under the login form. And have a look at Lost Password Help where we talk you through the whole process.

On the very rare occasions this happens, it’s almost always because you didn’t return to the website after you completed the payment process via PayPal. Such problems are easily and quickly fixed. The best thing to do is to contact technical support and let us know of the issue, and we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can (almost always within 24 hours). Please don’t take any other action as this just slows the process down.

So if you have paid but haven’t been able to complete your registration, contact technical support and know that we will prioritise your query and get back to you ASAP. We’ll get the problem sorted out quick smart!

First thing to mention here is that if you are receiving emails from us, it means you have subscribed to our newsletter, probably because you wanted to get your copy of the free report: The 12 Secrets to Less Shopping – More Style.

We all sometimes forget where and when we signed up for something, but rest assured that your permission was expressly granted – there’s no other way for you get on our list to be receiving emails from us. The reason for that is the system we use (Aweber) has what is called a “double opt in” process, which means that you had to have confirmed you wanted to hear from us, otherwise you wouldn’t be confirmed on the list.

And it’s also worth saying that it our pleasure and privilege to be communicating with you! We know how much information is available “out there” and how easy it is to be overwhelmed by too much “incoming” in your Inbox.

All that said, if you want to unsubscribe so that you no longer receive emails from us (such as our newsletter, or the free updates that come as part of the free report: The 12 Secrets to Less Shopping – More Style), you can easily unsubscribe by clicking on the Unsubscribe link at the end of every email.

It’s worth being sure that you use an email address which you have some control over and allows you to receive system-generated emails.  (We have discovered that some work email addresses are particularly aggressive about filtering emails sent via an online email system and this can cause problems in receiving your daily emails).

If you only have a work email address, we strongly suggest that you consider setting up a personal email address instead.  It’s quick and free/cheap to set up an email address on Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo and it will ensure that we get you all signed up easily, quickly and without hassle, and that your Daily emails come through every single time without a hitch.

The other thing you should do is to make sure that you whitelist us.

First, check your inbox for an email from Jill Chivers with the subject:

Conscious Clothes Shopping Mini Course – Lesson #1

Remember to check your junk/spam folder if you don’t see this email in your Inbox.

Then be sure to whitelist us in your email system.

If you don’t receive any email from us within 24 hours, please contact Technical Support for help.

Our email address is contact@shopyourwardrobe.com.

You might find helpful instructions here on how to whitelist an email address in a variety of popular email programs.

If you have a technical issue such as:

• you haven’t received a Weekly Lesson, or
• you can’t get into the Members Only area, or
• you aren’t able to download something, or
• any other problem of a technical nature

then contact our Tech Support. We’ll be back to you very quickly and help you sort out your issue. We get very few technical issues, but those we do, we always sort out (we have a 100% success rate with fixing idiosyncratic problems), and we do so quickly.

We have three key programs:

1. The 6 Week Conscious Clothes Shopping Mini Course. This is a sensational short course that introduces you to the principles of conscious clothes shopping. Read all about it and sign up here.
2. The 23 Day Wear Your Wardrobe Workshop. This short program provides 28 days of enlightening content designed to help you tap into the hidden mileage – and magic – in your existing wardrobe. Read more and sign up here.
3. The 12 month My Year Without Clothes Shopping program. The FAQ you’re reading now, and many other pages on this site (such as this one which lays out the 6 pieces of the overshopping puzzle, and this one which gives you details on each of the 12 themes covered in the 12 months), will give you all the information you need about this program. This is our flagship program – unmatched by any other we know of in the world. You can sign up for this program here.

If you’re interested in conscious shopping, start with the Mini Course.

If you are not wearing nearly enough of your current wardrobe and would love to know how to shop less and have more style, try the Wear Your Wardrobe Workshop.

If you’re serious about creating a healthier relationship to shopping, yourself, your wardrobe and your wallet – sign up for My Year Without Clothes Shopping.

For more detail, check out the Compare Programs page.

If you have a question about the program that we haven’t answered here, send an email via the Contact Form and we’ll answer as soon as we can. We occasionally respond positively to well-worded flattery and bribery.

If you are a website or blog owner and wish to support My Year Without Clothes Shopping, there are a number of ways you can do that:

1. Upload a banner to your site/blog.  Find images or video on our images and video page or colourful banners and images on the theme of Shop Less and Live More here.

2. Blog/articles and newsletter mentions. We’re very open to exchanging article and blog postings, and/or writing a series of posts for your blog or site.

If you have a regular newsletter and are looking for newsy items to include, consider adding something about our program and the conscious shopping movement we are part of.

Please be in touch if this idea appeals to you and we’ll discuss the best ways to support you and provide you with the information you need.

Other ideas? If you’d like to talk with us about any other ideas for collaboration or mutual support – please be in touch!